The Round Door

Materials:
1. card and felt pen.
2. A large piece of cardboard, large enough to make a round door.

Preparation: Make labels that would be found on various doors i.e. office, men and women, back in 5 minutes, class room 2, Exit, and Jesus is Risen. Make them large enough for everyone to see.

Make a large round door, suitable enough to resemble the round door of Jesus’ tomb.
Attach the Jesus is Risen sign to the round door.

On entry, set the round door nearby as you will refer to it in a little while. Have the side of the door without the label facing the children.

Drama Points:
1. To help settle the children, begin as quickly as possible. “Good morning everyone today is a good day to talk about doors, because it’s Easter Day”.

2. You would have noticed that there are all sorts of doors about with various shapes: there are roller doors, swinging doors, folding doors, tilt a door, large doors, small cat doors, and of course a round door as we have right here beside me.”

3. “But more important than the shapes of doors are the signs on the doors, because they tell us something”.

4. Ask the children a question. “What signs have you seen on doors?” Hold up one of the pre made signs as an example. “Here is a sign that I have made, it says, ‘Men’. “We all know what is behind that door, a toilet for boys and men”.

5. Go through the other signs and talk to the children about their importance and what they can expect that lies behind the door.

6. “There is one door more important than all the other doors. It’s a round door and it’s very old from a very, very, long time ago. At that time, Mary Magdalene, Mary mother of James, and Salome went to visit the tomb of Jesus……….”

7. Briefly tell the story of the empty tomb, and the angel telling the women that Jesus is risen.

8. “After that I’m sure the angel couldn’t stay too long and may have left a sign on the door for others to read and discover that Jesus is risen that he is alive.” Turn the round door around with the sign on it, ‘Jesus is risen’.

9. “Let this round door be a constant reminder that Jesus is risen, that he is alive.”

10. Conclude with prayer: “Our Father in heaven, thank you for Easter Day and all the good things that you give us, we especially thank you for your dear Son, Jesus that rose from the grave to give us life. Let the round door that was rolled away be a reminder that Jesus is risen and that he lives to look after us today. Amen.”